The complaint was filed on behalf of six local residents, but
other potential plaintiffs are lining up, said Rosemarie Arnold,
the personal-injury lawyer behind the potential class-action
lawsuit.

Arnold told Business Insider in an interview on Tuesday that she
was initially approached by a client in September, when the lanes
were closed for a four-day stretch. Now that Christie has
apologized for the incident, Arnold said that the lawsuit has
slam-dunk potential.

One of her clients, she said, claims she had panic attacks from
sitting in the gridlock. That client, Arnold said, also cited the
closeness to the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist
attacks as a contributor to the panic attack. Others said they
were late for work and lost hourly wages.

Since she filed the complaint last Thursday, others have called,
including a newspaper delivery business that said it was unable
to complete its deliveries and students who were late to or
missed classes in New York. Four more clients came calling saying
they'd had panic attacks.

"Not only are there emails saying that this was done on purpose,
but Gov. Christie came to Fort Lee and announced at a press
conference that the actions were purposeful, that they were
stupid, and that it was his fault," Arnold told Business Insider.

Legal experts say the case will be a fascinating one to watch. It
employs clauses of the U.S. Constitution — namely, the 14th
Amendment and its Privileges and Immunities clause — that
normally are not used in a proposed class-action suit.

David Noll, a law professor at Rutgers, told Business Insider
that the use of the Privileges and Immunities clause harkens back
to Civil War-era arguments. The clause is meant to infer a right
of free travel between states. In this case — since there is
documentation of citizens being stalled from traveling between
states — it's not a completely implausible claim to make, Noll
said.

"You never, never see this clause invoked," he said. "That said,
the legal theory isn't at all a loser."

A winning case may be more likely, Noll and other legal experts
said, as a group of individual lawsuits rather than a proposed
class action. They expressed skepticism that the suit would be
certified as a class action.

Arnold, however, thinks the case has a "100% chance of success."
And she made a point of saying that she has no political
motivation in the suit — she's a Republican.

"I have no political motivation whatsoever when I do my job,"
Arnold told Business Insider. "I am a victims' rights advocate,
and my goal is to protect the rights of innocent victims — and
most times, to get them money."